Suffering can be understood as a normative, negative, and affective reaction, that is, something that should not be. The avoidance of suffering can be seen as a motor for all types of human developments, whether in natural sciences, medicine, or social sciences. Suffering is often used synonymously with social suffering or as second-order suffering, that is, as an evaluational stance toward a first-order phenomenon. Social suffering is a certain negative, evaluative second-order stance toward a phenomenon that is identified as made by human beings or abolishable, changeable, or relievable by individual or collective social action. Unlike physical pain, suffering does not necessarily have a physical element. Not every pain leads to suffering, and not every suffering includes a physical reaction. When painful experiences are not seen as unjust normative phenomena or not as normative phenomena at all, they do not produce a normative affective reaction of suffering.